Skip to main content

The Controller of Patents rejects an application by Yahoo for a method of scheduling and displaying an online presence status of a user of an instant messaging application.

Yahoo’s method of scheduling and displaying an online presence status of a user of an instant messaging (IM) application under Section 3(k) and 3(n) of the Patents Act was denied by the Controller of Patents.

The reasons offered were: the steps of setting, determining, displaying were held to be nothing but computer algorithmic steps for giving a solution to the detailed problem related to scheduling an displaying an online presence status of a user of an instant messaging application; algorithm related claims are even wider than the computer programmes claimed by themselves; the hardware components were a general purpose computer.

Authored by Stuti Dhyani.

This article was published on Patents Rewind.

Most Recent

News & Insights

VIEW ALL
News & Updates
Aug 25, 2025

At the FICCI–ICRIER Conference on SEPs (23rd August 2025), our Managing Partner Mr. Pravin Anand shared his vision on how India can evolve from being

Conference on Standard Essential Patents (SEPs)
News & Updates
Aug 24, 2025

‘Intellectual Property for a company/ creator is as critical and important as human rights for an individual,’ this guiding belief at ANAND AND ANAND

IAM Strategy 300
Thought Leadership
Aug 21, 2025

‘First published on IAM’ By:  Vaishali R Mittal Patent examination by the Indian Patent Office (IPO) has slowed down dramatically over the last few

Patent examination slowdown risks harming India’s IP momentum
Thought Leadership
Jul 28, 2025

‘First published on Asia IP’ By: Pravin Anand In the book What is Life, written in 1944 by theoretical physicist Erwin Schrödinger, the author states: “A

Human versus machine consciousness